UTRERA, Spain (Reuters) – Some younger and energetic, others with greying muzzles and limping – tons of of greyhounds are ready in a canine shelter in southern Spain which hopes to seek out houses for the mistreated animals overseas as greyhounds should not frequent as pets in Spain.
“Ninety % of our adoptions are overseas. There is not any tradition of getting greyhounds as pets in our nation to this point,” mentioned Rocio Arrabal, head of the Benjamin Mehnert shelter and rescue basis within the Andalusian city of Utrera.
The ‘galgo’ greyhounds are used to trace or catch animals akin to deer, wild boar and rabbits, however are sometimes discarded when injured or sick.
Hunting dogs have grow to be a divisive difficulty in Spain, whose searching business is price an estimated 5 billion euros ($5.4 billion) a yr and has a strong foyer.
Parliament accepted on Thursday a invoice aimed toward bolstering animal rights, banning the sale of pets in retailers, changing zoos into wildlife restoration centres and imposing jail sentences for abusers, however searching dogs had been excluded from the invoice.
The shelter homes round 600 dogs, primarily galgos. They largely discover houses in different European nations, however some journey so far as the United Stated and Canada, Arrabal mentioned.
About 167,000 dogs have been deserted in Spain in 2021, many following the top of the searching season, based on Barcelona-based Affinity Foundation.
(Additional reporting by Miguel Gutierrez, writing by Miguel Gutierrez and Andrei Khalip, modifying by Alexandra Hudson)
